Alghadeer TV Alghadeer TV
Palestinians have warned of a plot to “dismantle” the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) after the body announced it will delegate its humanitarian services for more than 5 million Palestinian refugees living in dozens of refugee camps to other organizations to overcome its severe financial crisis.
The UNRWA is “not just about the delivery of services,” Muhammed Shehada from the Swiss-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor said.
“As long as UNRWA is there, it’s a reminder that the international community has a responsibility to solve the issue of Palestinian refugees,” he told AFP news agency.
Shehada further argued that any “de-prioritization” of the agency would be seen as diminishing “the Palestinian cause in general.”
Last month, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said in a letter to the Palestinian refugees that the agency could ask other UN bodies to help with service delivery.
“This year, a very harsh winter and the impact of the war in Ukraine on prices of food and fuel in the region add to the daily hardship you are facing. I witnessed this firsthand a few days ago when I met with Palestine refugees in Khan Danoun Camp and Yarmouk in Syria, many refugees shared with me their struggle to meet their basic needs and how the socio-economic situation compels them to return to live amid the rubble in Yarmouk,” the letter dated April 23 read.
He indicated the economic hardship the Palestinian refugees suffer in the occupied West Bank, besieged Gaza Strip, Jordan and Lebanon, is due to security and unstable economic situations in those countries.
“The painful reality is that in the last ten years, and despite immense outreach and fund-raising efforts, the resources available to UNRWA have stagnated, while the needs of Palestine refugees and cost of operations keep increasing,” Lazzarini said.
